98. The United Nations Charter establishes the general debate in the Assembly as a means whereby governments can keep in touch with world opinion. Like all the machinery of the United Nations, however, the general debate, which is so truly democratic in character, was provided to help nations to achieve mutual understanding, using the language of peace, and not as an occasion for the utterance of angry, warlike words.
99. Nevertheless, since the close of the splendid San Francisco period, when nations, still stirred by the emotions of war and flushed with the victory over the dark forces of hate, met together and concluded a pact of peace and good will, our debates have proved to be occasions for suspicion and mistrust and for reckless moves towards fresh disasters rather than instruments of conciliation and agreement.
100. Year after year, in the face of the anguished hopes of mankind, the international temperature has risen to fever pitch, providing a frightful warning of impending danger. And it is now, in these closing months of a year that has brought with it so many vain hopes for peace, that tension between the great Powers has become intensified to the point of obliterating from the horizon any prospect of universal peace. We seem to be reaching the climax of the crisis, a crossroads where nations must stop and choose either the road to peace or the highway of adventure. This is the end of a journey which has lasted approximately eight years; this is an appropriate time to reflect, to think, to look many times before we leap, as Mr. Vyshinsky, the USSR representative, advised us to do a few days ago [440th meeting], with such fine oratory but so little connexion with the facts. Look before you leap; but is there any government that would rashly destroy the spontaneous, human friendship of the peoples and subject the world once again to the clenched fist of hate?
101. The year 1953 has witnessed, in rapid chronological succession, a series of events of deep historical significance which seemed to open up a new prospect to the world and to herald a relaxing of international tension. The Soviet peace offensive — which an American statesman has termed the peace defensive — succeeded in creating a new atmosphere, favourable, as never before, to the study and adjustment of the world situation. But the world expected deeds to follow words, and the deeds have not yet appeared. The Korean armistice, the end of that terrible episode of bloodshed, strengthened the belief that we were approaching a solution of the tragic problems facing the peoples. It seemed that 1953 would become, if not the year in which peace was achieved, at least the year in which the first steps were taken towards peace. Why then do we find ourselves today confronted with this dire alternative, hearing the old, bitter words of recrimination and contemplating the frightful possibility that the course of oppression will become irrevocably fixed and that the lines of battle will again be drawn in Korea?
102. The reply to this great question, which hangs threateningly over us and increases indescribably the burden of our responsibility, is now on all lips, for it is the elementary, simple, common-sense answer: we are passing through this period of strife because governments have forfeited our confidence, because the great Powers of the world are suspicious of each other, because words serve only to mask intentions and because international life, the daily communion between nations, is carried on without confidence, in an atmosphere of mutual distrust and prejudice.
103. All the machinery of the United Nations, all its agencies for international co-operation and all its security measures will recede from the foreground and will be relegated to a subordinate, secondary place until confidence is restored among the nations. Our primary and most urgent task is to restore confidence among nations and governments, and even more so among the governments of the great Powers, which, with their material strength and moral influence, should establish new, hopes for peace in the world. To restore confidence and to establish an atmosphere of trust are common-sense phrases, elementary concepts, simple principles which are today buried beneath a veritable avalanche of words.
104. Although we have reached the most acute stage of the crisis, and while no fine oratory, no matter how polished or biting, can conceal the fact that a struggle for world domination is taking place, the very fact that the problem has become so acute leads us to hope for an unexpected solution. Barely three days ago, the Soviet Union representative hurled an indignant challenge at the democratic countries which refused to include the question of the composition of the political conference on the agenda. We were certainly not surprised to hear Mr. Vyshinsky’s threat, and later we admired the moderation, the intelligence and the calm open-mindedness apparent in Mr. Lodge’s reply, when he declared that the United States was ready to meet the other side half-way in achieving a compromise.
105. After the last eight years of conflict, it is time we paused for reflection. Why should we devote careful consideration to the items on the agenda of this eighth, session of the General Assembly, which may be a turning-point in the history of the United Nations, if what we say and agree upon here is built upon unreality, distrust and suspicion?
106. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of political manoeuvring, to use the apt words of Mr. Lodge, nor can we surround the Korean peace conference with the same atmosphere of distrust which envelopes this Assembly’s debates. We should concentrate less on the composition of the conference than on the desire for peace of those attending the conference.
107. Colombia will take part in the political conference in accordance with the same legal considerations and in the same spirit which promoted it to send its troops to Korea. We had nothing to defend in the war, nor shall we sign the peace, as a belligerent nation. Just as yesterday on the battlefield we carried out the mandate of the United Nations, so we shall continue to do tomorrow, in the peace talks, with no interest of our own save to comply with our international obligations and to respect the provisions of the Charter in their entirety.
108. May I be allowed at this point to recall, on behalf of the Colombian armed forces, as a tribute to our dead in Korea, the words of admiration with which the United Nations Command recorded the heroic behaviour of the Colombian battalion, its legendary courage, its indomitable fortitude and the proud simplicity of its military life. Ours is a peace-loving nation, but a nation which knows how to employ force in order to honour its international undertakings.
109. Eminent jurists and high authorities on international law occupy a place of honour in this Assembly. What a vast work is theirs, what a wide range of subjects and arguments lies before them if they can work free from the stress and strain of international tension. Laws are sanctioned by unanimous acceptance, but, before they can be thus sanctioned, the common will must be strengthened.
110. Once confidence has been restored among the great Powers, we could, for example, take up the question of disarmament and set up some kind of progressive jurisdiction which would start by prohibiting the use of certain weapons, and in particular atomic weapons, on open cities, and could gradually be extended to all weapons of war. We could likewise consider the revision of the Charter, with a view to making flexible, more adaptable, less oligarchical in respect to the veto and more democratic by providing a greater role for the Assembly, without, however, going so far as to introduce the preponderant vote, which would be a perversion of the spirit of the United Nations. And we should of course declare universal respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms. But this work, like so many other projects, depends upon the restoration of international confidence.
111. The Latin-American nations are young, and it is their bounden duty to be optimistic. They are not prepared to stand as dumb spectators, before calamity. They have placed all their enthusiasm and all their hopes in the United Nations, and they are awaiting the advent of peace.
112. Colombia has already demonstrated its willingness to serve by its action in the Korean war. The same attitude guides us now during this phase which is still one of conciliation and agreement; but should war again be unleashed upon the world, Colombia will again, with the same resolute will which led it to choose its battle station in Korea, range itself on the side of the nations of the world which yesterday fought for justice and freedom and which will fight for those ideals again tomorrow.